PG Mike Conley (1st Team All BIG, NBA All-Star, Oscar Winner, Minnesota Timberwolves)

[BuckeyeTillIDie]

I really hope he gets traded! To Portland would just be awesome.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

espn.com

Chris Herrington of The Memphis Flyer: "After suggesting one of the team's three young point guards would be moved this summer, it looks like Chris Wallace will instead be bringing all three back into training camp, with the addition of two other players -- O.J. Mayo and Marko Jaric -- with at least a pretense of playing point guard. Despite this logjam, Mike Conley needs to seize the job -- on the court and off -- leaving no doubt who this team's point guard and floor general is. Frankly, I see him beating out Kyle Lowry and Javaris Crittenton decisively in that regard. The bigger question will be how Conley fits in a starting backcourt alongside Mayo, a guard that seems to need the ball to be effective and whose long-term NBA position could be point guard. That question won't begin to be answered until Conley and Mayo pair up against NBA competition."

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

An interview with Mike Conley

E-mail photo | Buy photos

Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images


Graham Kendrick


We recently caught up with Grizzlies guard Mike Conley, who along with Rudy Gay was hosting youth basketball camps this week at Memphis University School and Memphis Athletic Ministries. We spoke to him about the camps, the offseason and why he thinks his second year will go better than his first year.
Why are you and Rudy hosting these camps this week?
?Me and Rudy wanted to do something for the community and we thought it would be a great idea to host a camp for three days in the summer to try to get kids to come in and have a good time, learn from some of the great instructors we?ve got with us and from ourselves, and have them try to take as much as they can from it and apply it to their everyday life. I think it?s a good opportunity for them, it keeps them off the streets and out of trouble and from doing the other things they could be doing during their free time. We?ve had a great turnout so I think it?s a great success.?

Continued............

 

[osugrad21]

Link

Grizzlies' Conley enters his second season assertive, faster, stronger, shooting better

By Ronald Tillery (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Monday, October 13, 2008
The skinny kid with a teen-age driver's license no longer wanders around FedExForum with pimples on his face and yielding to bumps along the road.
Mike Conley isn't completely grown up yet but he's definitely matured. Albeit early into his second NBA campaign, Conley's vision is less clouded by innocence and his path clearly is much smoother.
Check the scale.
Heading into tonight's fourth preseason game, Grizzlies guard Mike Conley is averaging 10.7 points, 4 assists and shooting 62 percent from 3-point range. More importantly, he's becoming a team leader.



He's eight pounds heavier.
Check the identification.
He turned 21 years old last Saturday.
Check the game.
Conley is shooting the basketball better and delivering it with predictable precision. More importantly, the 6-1 point guard taken fourth overall in the 2007 draft at age 19 is making a man's stand at the forefront of the Grizzlies' youth movement.
Conley returned this season displaying the assertive behavior vital for a point guard in the up-tempo offensive system head coach Marc Iavaroni champions. There is a building consensus that Conley's left behind the passive and deferential qualities from last season, and is making a firm case as the Grizzlies' starter at his position.
"He just seems much more sure of himself," Iavaroni said. "He's becoming a better floor general. He's talking more on offense. He's always been good at keeping the ball in front of him. He's always been good at trying to find the open man and making simple plays. He just looks like he belongs there."
This much is for sure: Conley looks better than he did a year ago.
Heading into the Grizzlies' fourth exhibition game tonight against the Indiana Pacers, Conley's averaged 10.7 points, four assists and 1.6 turnovers in three games.
Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

Link

Grizzlies guard Mike Conley Jr. to donate $15,000

Former Lawrence North High School player, is making the donation to the Lawrence Township School Foundation


By Jeff Rabjohns
Posted: October 16, 2008





Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Conley Jr., who played on three state championship basketball teams at Lawrence North High School, is donating $15,000 today to the Lawrence Township School Foundation.
The funds will be used to support the township?s ?My Community Gets Healthy? program. Conley?s gift will team with a contribution from the John Stewart Memorial Fund toward heart rate monitors and other equipment for students to track fitness progress.

?I am pleased to give back to the Lawrence Township schools and particularly to give to a program that will help children focus on their health and fitness,? Conley said in a news release.

?I am also pleased to do this in association with the contribution from the John Stewart memorial Fund since John also played basketball for LN and meant so much to my high school coach, Jack Keefer.?
Cont...

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

IndyStar

Conley honors Wildcat he never met


By Jeff Rabjohns
Posted: October 17, 2008





Mike Conley Jr. never met John Stewart, the Lawrence North High School basketball center who died in a game in 1999 from a previously undetected heart ailment.
But as a basketball player at Lawrence North, Conley knew of Stewart and saw the impact of the John Stewart Memorial Fund. When a chance arose to partner with the fund, Conley took it.
That's more of the reason why," Conley said Thursday afternoon after donating $15,000 to the Lawrence Township School Foundation to purchase fitness equipment for a youth program.
"Just play for coach (Jack Keefer) and how much he talked about John, how much it meant to him and (Keefer's wife) Jan and the team and community here, you can just sense how great of a person he was and what kind of impact he had on this community.
"To not honor that by not helping out in the community would be an injustice."

Continued................

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

MORE GRIZZLY THOUGHTS



[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]* I really enjoy watching Conley and can?t help but root for the kid. I had a chance to sit down with him for a chat in Cleveland, and he was remarkably welcoming and polite. He admitted that he was struggling in his first year as a pro -- with the speed of the game, his own confidence, and especially all the losing. But he made great strides toward the end of the season, and did a nice job of running the team against Houston (8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 turnovers).
[/FONT]

 

[ScriptOhio]

Re: He admitted that he was struggling in his first year as a pro -- with the speed of the game, his own confidence.

Probably his transition from the NCAA to the NBA would have been a lot better had he stayed in school another year. However, I will agree that financially he made the right decision (i.e. #4 selection in the 2007 draft).

:osu:

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

Finishing goal for Conley

Guard taking benchings in fourth as a challenge

By Ronald Tillery (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Monday, November 3, 2008


Mike Conley is equipped to perform a lot of magical things in basketball.
His forte thus far three games into the season?
Disappearing acts.
The second-year point guard, taken fourth overall in the 2007 draft, hasn't logged a single minute in the fourth quarter of the Grizzlies' past two games. He's yielded to third-year reserve Kyle Lowry, whose defensive toughness, speedy play and adequate decision-making has earned him a role as the closer at that position.
So what's going on with Conley?
He's not injured.
"That question requires reflection," Griz coach Marc Iavaroni said after benching Conley for the entire fourth quarter of a 96-86 loss Saturday at Chicago. "Right now, Kyle is playing with more energy and physicality so I'm going with him."

Continued.............

 

[Bestbuck36]

Scuttlebut on Portland radio has a possible trade in the works with Outlaw going to Memphis for Conley. Nothing definitive yet of course but Portland needs an attacking PG to go with Roy, Aldridge and of course Greg Oden. Outlaw is considered a 2nd and 3rd option at times in the logjam at SF. Outlaw is playing great basketball right now so Memphis probably gets the better of this trade were it to go through, but reuniting Greg and Mike in Portland would be freakin awesome!

I've already got an Oden jersey, if Mike comes west there may be one of those as well in my closet soon!

 

[Jake]

Scuttlebut on Portland radio has a possible trade in the works with Outlaw going to Memphis for Conley. Nothing definitive yet of course but Portland needs an attacking PG to go with Roy, Aldridge and of course Greg Oden.

Unfortunately, Conley hasn't been an attacking PG in the NBA thus far:

G Mike Conley is playing under 25 minutes a game, and not seeing much action in the fourth quarter, because of his lack of aggressiveness. He was awful in Wednesday night's 132-103 loss to the Knicks, scoring six points on 2-of-7 shooting, including a couple of airballs. "He's not playing with confidence," Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni said. "He's got to play harder. When he plays hard, he's a good player. When he doesn't play hard, he's an average player." Conley, who supposedly worked on his outside shot in the offseason, has been terrible from the field.

Maybe getting reunited with Oden will help him? Going from Memphis to Portland sure wouldn't hurt. I was surprised when he left and maybe another year of college ball would've helped. Can't blame him for coming out when you get picked that high, though.

Hope he turns it around. He's a good kid and I'm rooting for him.

 

[Buckskin86]

Blazers discussing trade for Grizzlies? Conley
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports

The Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies have discussed a multiplayer trade that centers on the exchange of forward Travis Outlaw and point guard Mike Conley, league sources said Friday.

The talks have been ongoing for weeks, but one source close to the Blazers said Portland GM Kevin Pritchard remains hesitant about completing the deal and that a trade doesn?t appear imminent.

The salaries of Outlaw and Conley would allow for a one-on-one swap, but both teams want to include additional players and contracts to satisfy other needs, including Portland?s Sergio Rodriguez and Memphis? Hakim Warrick and Javaris Crittenton. It is unlikely that this trade will happen for a straight-up exchange of Outlaw and Conley.

Outlaw, 24, and Conley, 21, are both represented by agent Bill Duffy, and a source said that he?s been involved in the discussions.

Portland has long coveted Conley, in large part because of his childhood friendship with center Greg Oden. Conley and Oden grew up together in Indianapolis, playing together through a Final Four season at Ohio State. Pritchard knows that Conley has the credibility to get in Oden?s face when he needs a push, and that?s played an important part in his trade explorations.

Blazers discussing trade for Grizzlies' Conley - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Conley might be shaking out of his funk........

Link

Meanwhile, second-year point guard Mike Conley started shooting horribly and with shaky overall play. But he's gone from 1-for-15 3-point shooting to making 10 of his last 20 long-range shots. Overall, Conley is shooting 44 percent and playing more assertively on offense. In his past six games, Conley has also functioned with a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Conley has slipped defensively, with opposing guards blowing by him too often. But then, no one on the Griz, with the exception of veteran Quinton Ross, is playing stalwart defense.

 

[naptownbuck]

Jr. capped off a very solid week of basketball with another good floor game vs the Bulls on Friday Night. 9 points 7 assists in 27 minutes.

The most important stat is probably the minutes played which ended up six more than starter Kyle Lowry. Memphis is a young, guard heavy team. They started this season with no identity whatsoever in attempting to accommodate OJ Mayo. They would run Conley, a true pass first 1, and Lowry, more of a combo guard off the ball with Mayo. But after weeks of bad losses they are finally figuring out that you might want the person dominating the ball to be a facilitator instead of a franchise scorer.

Conley has been criticized this season for being tenative. Well I viewed the last 3 Memphis games on League pass and Jr. is getting everyone involved like a good pg should, as well as picking his spots to drive and score. The coaches have matched his play by giving him more minutes, and it's amazing what happens when a coach begins to have confidence in a player.

 

[BengalsAndBucks]

Jr. capped off a very solid week of basketball with another good floor game vs the Bulls on Friday Night. 9 points 7 assists in 27 minutes.

The most important stat is probably minutes played which ended up six more than starter Kyle Lowry. Memphis is a young, guard heavy team. They started this season with no identity whatsoever in attempting to accommodate OJ Mayo. They would run Conley, a true pass first 1, and Lowry, more of a combo guard off the ball with Mayo. But after weeks of bad losses they are finally figuring out that you might want the person dominating the ball to be a facilitator instead of a franchise scorer.

Conley has been criticized this season for being tenative. Well I viewed the last 3 Jr. is getting everyone involved like a good pg should, and picking his spots to drive and score. The coaches have match his play by giving him more minutes, and it's amazing what happens when a coach has confidence in a player.

He also had 10 rebounds in that game. Additionally, he scored 14 points in the fourth quarter Wednesday night to help the Grizz beat the Thunder, and kept OJ Mayo on the bench the entire fourth quarter while he dominated. Great week for Mike.